1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to integration integrity and, in particular, to a system and method for managing the integrity of integrated business or enterprise applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an environment where data is extracted from and transferred between various and disparate applications (e.g., accounting, inventory, sales), application integration and specifically Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) refers to the process of making sure each application is provided with the expected types of data and in the correct formats. Such an integration process typically involves defining how to get data from and send data to each application, mapping and transforming each set of data, scheduling the data extractions and transfers, validating the data, and other similar tasks. The advantage of a high level of integration is that a corporation, institution, or other entity can respond quickly to changing economic or organizational conditions.
Unfortunately, a highly integrated system can create interdependencies where a small change in one application may adversely impact obvious or seemingly unrelated applications. Consider the number of changes that must be administered, for example, to support a business merger or acquisition, a new software system, a move to e-business, or even routine correction of errors. Each change can cause one or more application, interface, or other component that depends on the changed application to become unstable, thereby compromising the integrity of the integration.
One way to ensure the integrity of an integrated systems is to identify each change and evaluate the impact on other applications prior to releasing or implementing the change. In most integrated environments, however, virtually all changes require some programming change, which means finding and modifying the source code, compiling it, and testing it. Unfortunately, most integrated systems do not have the capability to monitor for such changes, since coding is done manually and other construction is done in an ad hoc manner.
Another way to ensure integration integrity is to manually monitor the data shared by each application. Under this approach, a person who is responsible for the application and who knows the usage and value of the application checks to make sure that all extracted data is correct and that all incoming data is properly mapped to the application. If there is a change to any business process, data process, or other application supporting or supported by the application, the person ensures that the appropriate change is made to the application.
Accordingly, it is desirable to be able to provide a computerized method and system of managing the integrity of an integrated applications environment. More specifically, it is desirable to be able to ensure the stability of interrelated and interdependent applications and business processes, while providing analysis information regarding changes to data flows and format.